And after you've picked yourself off the ground and dusted yourself off, you should be outraged.

Stories in The Record and the Star-Ledger on Sunday, citing several unnamed sources, stated that Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo both were aware of a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plan to inflate the original, bloated toll hike request to make the lower, revised increase the two governors had both indignantly called for seem more palatable - and to make it appear as though they were working on behalf of the commuting public.

The plan was carried out by the two Christie appointees at the epicenter of the bridge scandal - authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni and aide David Wildstein.

"I said, 'You're kidding me, right?' and they said 'no,' " Christie told the press of his reaction three days after the proposal was introduced in August 2011. "This is, unfortunately, a testimony to the mismanagement of the Port Authority for years. We shouldn't have to be in this kind of situation."

A "war room" reportedly was set up to develop a strategy to get the toll hikes approved. The strategy included holding eight public hearings - all in one day at times and places inconvenient to the public - just two weeks after the plan was announced.

Neither Christie nor anyone from his administration would comment on the stories. The silence is deafening.

On Aug. 17, 2011, we wrote an editorial urging Christie to use his veto power to reject the toll hike approved by Port Authority commissioners that would jack up the tolls for Hudson River crossings from $8 to $14 by 2014 for E-ZPass users, and $3 more for cash payers. That came on the heels of a 33 percent toll hike three years earlier.

Christie didn't heed our advice. Now we know why. The stories also shed light on why, despite slamming the Port Authority for fiscal mismanagement, Christie vetoed a bill that would have required more legislative oversight of the authority.

Perhaps it can be argued that these kinds of manipulative games are common in politics. But bald-face lying is not, particularly coming from a former crime-busting federal prosecutor who portrayed himself as intolerant of self-serving politics.

A recent Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll showed Christie's approval ratings have dropped sharply in the wake of the George Washington Bridge fiasco because of suspicions that he knew more about what was going on than he has admitted.